Inspector French is the central figure in many books by Mr. Crofts. This, his greatest case, opens with the discovery beside the open safe of a diamond merchant in Hatton Garden of the dead body of his head clerk, and valuable diamonds are missing. There are many people to suspect, and before Inspector French solves it, he has to unravel many mysteries and follow up many false clues.

Inspector French is the central figure in many books by Mr. Crofts. This, his greatest case, opens with the discovery beside the open safe of a diamond merchant in Hatton Garden of the dead body of his head clerk, and valuable diamonds are missing. There are many people to suspect, and before Inspector French solves it, he has to unravel many mysteries and follow up many false clues.

'Crofts constructs his alibi with immense elaboration...The story is highly successful, and Mr Crofts is to be congratulated upon his experiment' - Dorothy L. SayersWe begin with a body. Andrew Crowther, a wealthy retired manufacturer, is found dead in his seat on the 12.30 flight from Croydon to Paris. Rather less orthodox is the ensuing flashback in which we live with the killer at every stage, from the first thoughts of murder to the strains and stresses of living with its execution. Seen from the criminal's perspective, a mild-mannered Inspector by the name of French is simply another character who needs to be dealt with. This is an unconventional yet gripping story of intrigue, betrayal, obsession, justification and self-delusion. And will the killer get away with it?

A unique anthology for crime aficionados - seven of the world's most notorious genuine murder mysteries retold by the most accomplished classic crime writers of their generation. A manipulative murderer who stalked the streets of Paris; a young wife who poisoned her eccentric husband; a bank cashier's mysterious suicide; a brutal double murder in New Zealand... Seven of the world's greatest crime writers turn their hand to some of the world's most spine-tingling mysteries - all of them astonishingly TRUE. This remarkable collection from the archives of the Detection Club follows The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman and Six Against the Yard back into print after more than 75 years, and shows some of the most accomplished authors of their generation retelling real-life murder mysteries with all the relish of the tastiest crime fiction.

A classic crime novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’, featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. James Tarrant wants to make a lot of money. But as an assistant chemist in a sleepy village backwater his career seems to have reached a dead end and he has no way to further his ambitions. Suddenly inspiration strikes, and his goal looks to be within reach, with a willing young accomplice who will do almost anything for him. But would she go as far as murder? Inspector French is called in to investigate shady business deals, two-timers, and multiple motives for revenge. . .

A classic crime novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’, featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. Money – or lack of it – can be, to certain members of society, a powerful motive for murder. Two sisters and a brother who were to share equally in their uncle's fortune had, each in their own way, urgent reasons for wanting money. But it was a comparative outsider – who also stood to benefit from the estate through his wife's inheritance – who contemplates the murder of their uncle. In great financial difficulty, his desperation urges him on to plan the crime with infinite care. An unexpected chance leads to an accomplice who provides a sound alibi, upon whose silence he can rely. As The Affair at Little Wokeham unfolds, Chief Inspector French enters upon the scene and, through his painstaking investigation, the mystery is unravelled.

A classic crime novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’, featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. Moneylender Albert Reeve has added blackmail to his activities. When his cottage burns down and he perishes within the flames, his death comes as a shock to one of his victims and Tony Meadows finds himself accused of murder. Luckily for him, his sister remembers Inspector French and asks him to help. French fears a miscarriage of justice and agrees to commence one of his most challenging investigations.

A classic crime novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’, featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. The new Sir Geoffrey Buller is earning his living in Chicago when he unexpectedly inherits his title, an English baronetcy, and Forde Manor in Surrey, complete with its vast collection of priceless works of art. His widowed housekeeper, who knows a thing or two, is surprised to discover that Sir Geoffrey is having his pictures cleaned. But then disaster strikes! A devastating fire, a missing artist and a lot of insurance money – from a mosaic of detail, Inspector French must reconstruct the pattern of a most cunning and complex crime…

A classic crime novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’, featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. When Morrison first heard of old Stott’s idea to purchase an ocean liner and run her as a tourist ship in sheltered waters off the British Isles, he was most enthusiastic. In fact, he accepted a job on board. But when he discovered the true purpose of Stott’s floating paradise, Morrison’s delight turned to foreboding. And when murder struck the vessel, he wasn’t alone. A certain Inspector from Scotland Yard had been travelling incognito, almost as if a nasty spot of trouble had been expected…

This special expanded edition of Freeman Wills Crofts’ classic crime novel includes a unique commentary by Superintendent Walter Hambrook of Scotland Yard, never before published in book form. The Carrington family, victims of a strange poisoning, take an Olympic cruise from Glasgow to help them recover. At Creuta one member goes ashore and does not return. Their body is next day found floating in the Straits of Gibraltar. Joining the ship at Marseilles, can Inspector French solve the mystery before they reach Athens? Introduced by Tony Medawar, editor of Bodies from the Library, this classic Inspector French novel includes unique interludes by Superintendent Walter Hambrook of Scotland Yard, who provides a real-life detective commentary on the case as the mystery unfolds.

A classic crime novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’, featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. Becoming the social secretary for millionaire financier Andrew Harrison sounded like the dream job: just writing a few letters and making amiable conversation, with luxurious accommodation thrown in. But Markham Crewe had not reckoned on the unpopularity of his employer, especially within his own household, where animosity bordered on sheer hatred. When Harrison is found dead on his Henley houseboat, Crewe is not the only one to doubt the verdict of suicide. Inspector French is another…

A classic crime novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, ‘The King of Detective Story Writers’, featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. Julia Elton, mistress of Chalfont, is the dutiful wife of a man she does not love. Frank Cox is the man she falls in love with. Julia’s husband, Richard, suspects her of an affair and has also dismissed an employee for theft. When a murderer strikes at Richard Elton, it starts a chain of events which affects the lives of many. And one of these is Inspector French.

To mark the publishing centenary of Freeman Wills Crofts, 'The King of Detective Story Writers', this is one of six classic crime novels being issued in 2020 featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. Work on the widening of the Southern Railway's route along the Dorset coast is halted when a man is hit in the path of a train. At the inquest, the tragedy becomes a dark and sinister mystery when a witness swears to seeing a man running away from the scene of the accident - a statement that results in the intervention of Inspector French. But when the apparent solution to the case turns into an even deeper mystery, French faces the most complex problem he has ever encountered.

To mark the publishing centenary of Freeman Wills Crofts, 'The King of Detective Story Writers', this is one of six classic crime novels being issued in 2020 featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. The Jane Vosper is plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic by a series of explosions in her hold. With no innocent explanation of the cause, it appears that someone must have sunk the ship for the insurance money. When The Land and Sea Insurance Company's official investigator then disappears, Inspector French is called in from Scotland Yard to find him. French decides that the only way to find his missing person is to solve the baffling mystery of the sinking of the Jane Vosper first...

To mark the publishing centenary of Freeman Wills Crofts, 'The King of Detective Story Writers', this is one of six classic crime novels being issued in 2020 featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. The Joymount Rapid Hardening Cement Manufacturing Company on the Solent is in serious financial trouble. Its rival, Chayle on the Isle of Wight, has a secret new manufacturing process and is underselling them. Having failed to crack the secret legitimately, two employees hatch a plot to break in and steal it. But the scheme does not go according to plan, resulting in damage and death, and Inspector French is brought in to solve one of the most dramatic and labyrinthine cases of his entire career.

To mark the publishing centenary of Freeman Wills Crofts, 'The King of Detective Story Writers', this is one of six classic crime novels being issued in 2020 featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. Anne Day is the new housekeeper at Frayle, the home of Mr Grinsmead and his invalid wife. To Anne's horror, her intuition that something is very wrong in the house culminates in an unexpected death. With the police jumping to devastating conclusions, Inspector French arrives to investigate. With the narrative switching between Anne's and French's perspectives, giving alternately the outside and inside track of an ingenious and elaborate investigation, will tragedy strike a second time before the mystery is solved?

To mark the publishing centenary of Freeman Wills Crofts, 'The King of Detective Story Writers', this is one of six classic crime novels being issued in 2020 featuring Inspector French, coming soon to television. A weekend board meeting brings a jewellery firm's accountant to the managing director's impressive Guildford home. On the Sunday morning, he is found dead and is soon the subject of a murder inquiry by the local police. Meanwhile, Chief Inspector French is investigating the sensational burglary of half a million pounds' worth of jewels from the safe of an office in London's Kingsway. French must determine the connection between the theft and the murder as he embarks on a perilous chase to track down the criminals.

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the seminal first novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed 'The King of Detective Story Writers' and recognised as one of the 'big four' Golden Age crime authors. The unloading of a consignment of French wine from the steamship Bullfinch is interrupted by a gruesome discovery in a broken cask leaking sawdust and gold sovereigns. But when the shipping clerk returns with the police, the cask and its macabre contents have gone. Following the clues to Paris, Inspector Burnley of Scotland Yard enlists the help of the genial French detective M. Lefarge to check motives and alibis in their hunt for evidence of a particularly fiendish murder. This Detective Story Club classic is introduced by Freeman Wills Crofts himself in a unique preface from 1946 about The Cask's origins.

From the Collins Crime Club archive, the forgotten second novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, once dubbed 'The King of Detective Story Writers'. When the body of Sir William Ponson is found in the Cranshaw River near his home of Luce Manor, it is assumed to be an accident - until the evidence points to murder. Inspector Tanner of Scotland Yard discovers that those who would benefit most from Sir William's death seem to have unbreakable alibis, and a mysterious fifth man whose footprints were found at the crime scene is nowhere to be found . . . This Detective Story Club classic is introduced by Dolores Gordon-Smith, author of the Jack Haldean Golden Age mysteries.

From a murder in South Africa to the tracking down of a master criminal in northern Scotland, this is a true classic of Golden Age detective fiction by one of its most accomplished champions. When a signalman discovers a mutilated body inside a railway tunnel near Groote Park, it seems to be a straightforward case of a man struck by a passing train. But Inspector Vandam of the Middeldorp police isn't satisfied that Albert Smith's death was accidental, and he sets out to prove foul play in a baffling mystery which crosses continents from deepest South Africa to the wilds of northern Scotland, where an almost identical crime appears to have been perpetrated. The Groote Park Murder was the last of Freeman Wills Crofts' standalone crime novels, foreshadowing his iconic Inspector French series and helping to cement his reputation (according to his publishers) as 'the greatest and most popular detective writer in the world'. Like The Cask, The Ponson Case and The Pit-Prop Syndicate before it, here were a delightfully ingenious plot, impeccable handling of detail, and an overwhelming surprise 'curtain' from a masterful crime writer on the cusp of global success. This Detective Club classic is introduced with an essay by Freeman Wills Crofts, unseen since 1937, about 'The Writing of a Detective Novel'.

'Mr Wills Crofts is deservedly a first favourite with all who want a real puzzle' - Times Literary Supplement 'He always manages to give us something that really keeps us guessing' - Daily Mirror George Surridge, director of the Birmington Zoo, is a man with many worries: his marriage is collapsing; his finances are insecure; and an outbreak of disease threatens the animals in his care. As Surridge's debts mount and the pressure on him increases, he begins to dream of miracle solutions. But is he cunning enough to turn his dreams into reality - and could he commit the most devious murder in pursuit of his goals? This ingenious crime novel, with its unusual 'inverted' structure and sympathetic portrait of a man on the edge, is one of the greatest works by this highly respected author. The elaborate means of murder devised by Crofts's characters is perhaps unsurpassed in English crime fiction for its ostentatious intricacy.